Fan motor and vacuum cleaner having the same

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are a fan motor and a vacuum cleaner which include a blowing fan and a plurality of diffuser blades disposed at a radially outer side of the blowing fan and circumferentially spaced apart from each other. Outer end portions of the plurality of diffuser blades include a spoiler portion formed obliquely to an outward direction with respect to an extending direction of the diffuser blades, so that a flow separation of air flowing across an outer surface of the diffuser blade is reduced. Accordingly, the suction force of the fan motor increases.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No.10-2016-0054002, filed on May 2, 2016, in the Korean IntellectualProperty Office, the disclosures of which is incorporated herein byreference.

BACKGROUND 1. Field

Embodiments of the disclosure relate to a fan motor that generatessuction force and a vacuum cleaner having the fan motor.

2. Description of the Related Art

In general, a vacuum cleaner is a device for performing cleaning using afan motor that generates suction force by sucking foreign substancessuch as dust together with air by the suction force, and then separatingthe foreign substances from the air.

The fan motor includes a motor to generate rotational force, a blowingfan rotated by the motor to generate suction force, and a guide memberto guide air discharged from the blowing fan.

The guide member includes a plurality of diffuser blades disposed on aradially outer side of the blowing fan and spaced apart from each otherin a circumferential direction. The diffuser blades allow the airdischarged from the blowing fan to the outside at high velocity.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure provides a fan motor and a vacuum cleaner capableof increasing suction force by increasing flow velocity of air passingbetween diffuser blades.

The present disclosure also provides a fan motor and a vacuum cleanercapable of maintaining suction force of the fan motor while reducing thesize of a guide member and the length of diffuser blades.

In accordance with one aspect of the present disclosure, a fan motor anda vacuum cleaner may include a blowing fan, and a plurality of diffuserblades provided on a radially outer side of the blowing fan and spacedapart from each other in a circumferential direction, wherein each ofthe plurality of diffuser blades includes a spoiler portion provided atan outer end of the diffuser blade and extending obliquely to an outwarddirection with respect to an extending direction of the diffuser blades.

The plurality of diffuser blades may each extend obliquely with respectto the circumferential direction.

The spoiler portion may be formed such that the outer surface of thespoiler portion is at an angle between about 5 and about 20 degrees withrespect to the extending direction of the diffuser blade.

The spoiler portion may be of a third of the length of the diffuserblade.

The diffuser blade may have a thickness such that an inner end portionof the diffuser blade is thicker than an outer end portion of thediffuser blade.

The diffuser blade may have a gradually increasing thickness from theinner end portion to the outer end portion.

The fan motor and the vacuum cleaner may further include a motor housingconfigured to accommodate the motor, a fan housing configured toaccommodate the blowing fan and coupled to the motor housing, and aguide member configured to guide air discharged from the blowing fan,wherein the guide member includes a partition wall having a circularplate shape, and the plurality of diffuser blades are provided at anoutermost edge of one side of the partition wall.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and/or other aspects of the disclosure will become apparent andmore readily appreciated from the following description of the exemplaryembodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, inwhich:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating a fan motor included in avacuum cleaner according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view illustrating a fan motor includedin a vacuum cleaner according to the embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a fan motor included in a vacuumcleaner according to the embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view illustrating a guide member included in avacuum cleaner according to the embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of diffuser blades applied to thevacuum cleaner according to the embodiment of the present disclosure;and

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of diffuser blades applied to a vacuumcleaner according to another embodiment of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

A vacuum cleaner in accordance with an embodiment of the presentdisclosure will now be described in detail with reference to theaccompanying drawings.

Referring to FIG. 1, a vacuum cleaner includes a fan motor 10 inside.The vacuum cleaner sucks foreign materials on a floor together with airby suction force generated by the fan motor 10, thereby cleaning thefloor.

Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, the fan motor 10 includes a motor 11 togenerate rotational force, and a blowing fan 12 to be rotated by themotor 11.

The motor 11 includes a stator 11 a fixed to a motor housing 13, whichwill be described later, a rotator 11 b rotatably installed in thestator 11 a and rotated by interaction with the stator 11 a, and arotating shaft 11 c installed at the center of the rotor 11 b andconnected to the blowing fan 12 to rotate the blowing fan 12 togetherwith the rotor 11 b.

The blowing fan 12 has a centrifugal fan that sucks air in an axialdirection thereof and discharges the air to an outside in a radialdirection thereof.

The fan motor 10 includes a motor housing 13 to accommodate the motor11, a fan housing 14 coupled to the motor housing 13 and accommodatingthe blowing fan 12, a bearing 16 to rotatably support the rotating shaft11 c, and and a fixing bracket 17 to fix the bearing 16 to the fanhousing 14.

The motor housing 13 is formed in a hollow cylindrical shape andincludes a motor accommodating portion 13 a to form a space foraccommodating the motor 11 therein and a flange portion 13 b thatextends radially and outwardly from one end of the motor accommodatingportion 13 a to form a space to accommodate the air blowing fan 12together with the fan housing 14.

The motor housing portion 13 a is provided with a discharge port 13 cthrough which the air having passed through the motor 11 is dischargedto an outside of the fan motor 10. The discharge ports 13 c are spacedapart from each other in a circumferential direction of the motorhousing portion 13 a.

The fan housing 14 accommodates the blowing fan 12 and the guide member15 for spreading the air discharged from the blowing fan 12 and guidingit to the motor 11.

The fan housing 14 is formed in a cylindrical shape with one side closedand the other side opened, and an inside of the fan housing 14 forms aspace to accommodate the blowing fan 12 and the guide member 15.

The opened side of the fan housing 14 is closed by the flange portion 13b of the motor housing 13 as the fan housing 14 is coupled with themotor housing 13. A center portion of the closed side of the fan housing(14) is provided with a suction port (14 a) through which air may besucked into the fan housing 14.

Referring to FIG. 4, the guide member 15 includes a partition wall 151formed in a circular plate shape, a plurality of diffuser blades 152provided at an outermost edge of one side of the partition wall 151 andspaced apart from each other in a circumferential direction, and aplurality of guide blades 153 provided on the other side of thepartition wall 151 and spaced apart from each other in thecircumferential direction of the partition wall 151. The partition wall151 partitions the space in which the motor accommodation portion 13 aand the air blowing fan 12 are accommodated. The partition wall 151 hasa through hole 151 a at a center thereof through which the rotation axis11 c passes

The diffuser blades 152 guide the air discharged from the blowing fan 12to be radially and outwardly discharged at high velocity, therebyincreasing the suction force of the fan motor 10.

The diffuser blades 152 extend obliquely with respect to thecircumferential direction of the partition wall 151 and curvedly extendin the form of an arch to smoothly guide the air discharged between thediffuser blades 152 across the inner circumferential face of the fanhousing 14.

The blowing fan 12 is disposed inside of the diffuser blades 152.Specifically, the diffuser blades 152 are disposed on the outer side ofthe radial direction of the blowing fan 12 and spaced apart from eachother in a circumferential direction of the partition wall 151, so thatthe air radially discharged to the outer direction from the blowing fan12 is guided by the diffuser blades 152.

Referring to FIG. 5 the diffuser blades 152 gradually increases inthickness from an inner end portion of the diffuser blade to an outerend portion of the diffuser blade to form the shape of substantialwedges. Therefore, the air discharged from the blowing fan 12 flows moresmoothly into the space between the diffuser blades 152, making the airrapidly pass between the diffuser blades 152.

The guide blades 153 guide the discharged air that has passed betweenthe diffuser blades 152 back to the inner side of the radial directionof the air blowing fan 12 to make the air pass the motor 11.

Therefore, when the blowing fan 12 is rotated by the motor 11, air isguided by the suction force generated from the blowing fan 12 into theblowing fan 12 through the suction port 14 a and then to the outer sideof the radial direction of the blowing fan 12 in. The air dischargedfrom the blowing fan 12 is guided by the diffuser blades 152 anddischarged through spaces between the diffuser blades 152.

The air moves along the inner circumferential face of the fan housing 14and is guided by the guide blades 153 to move to the inner side of theradial direction through the spaces between the guide blades 153. Theair is subsequently transferred to the inside of the motor housing 13,cools the motor 11 disposed in the motor housing 13 while passing theinside of the motor housing 13, and is discharged from the fan motor 10through the discharge port 13 c.

As for this vacuum cleaner, the suction force of the fan motor 10 isdetermined not only by the rotational velocity of the blowing fan 12 butalso by the flow velocity of the air discharged from the blowing fan 12.That is, the suction force of the fan motor 10 may increase by makingthe air rapidly discharged from the blowing fan 12.

For this purpose, a spoiler portion 152 a is provided in an outer endportion of the diffuser blade 152, and the spoiler portion is formed tobe oblique outwardly with respect to an extending direction of thediffuser blade 152. The spoiler portion 152 a is formed at an angle of 5degrees or more and 20 degrees or less with respect to the extendingdirection of the diffuser blade 152 and has a length, which is a thirdor less of of the length of the diffuser blade 152.

This spoiler portion 152 a is to reduce flow separation of the airguided by the outer circumferential face of the diffuser blade 152.

As described above, since the diffuser blade 152 is formed in the formof an arch, the flow separation may inevitably occur at the outer endportion of the diffuser blade 152 while the air is moving along theouter circumferential surface of the diffuser blade 152. The flowseparation acts as a factor to reduce flow velocity of the air passingbetween the diffuser blades 152.

As in the present disclosure, with the spoiler portions 152 a formed onthe outer end portions of the diffuser blades 152, the flow separationthat might occur at the outer end portions of an outer circumferentialsurface of the diffuser blades 152 may be reduced. The air flowingacross the outer circumferential faces of the diffuser blades 152 may berapidly discharged through the spaces between the diffuser blades 152.

In addition, the spoiler portion 152 a is configured for an airflow ofthe air guided by one of the diffuser blades 152 to be separated fromthe other airflow of air guided by a neighboring diffuser blade 152.This may reduce interferences between the airflows guided by thediffuser blades 152, thereby discharging the air more smoothly.

As described above, the spoiler portion 152 a provided in the diffuserblade 152 is configured to reduce the flow separation of the airdischarged across the outer circumferential face of the diffuser blades152 and reduce interferences between the airflows guided by the diffuserblades 152. As a result, the flow velocity of air discharged between thediffuser blades 152 increases, and the suction force of the fan motor 10increases.

In general, the suction force of the fan motor 10 increases inproportion to the size of the guide member 15 and the length of thediffuser blade 152. Therefore, by forming the spoiler portion 152 a atthe outer end portion of the diffuser blades 152, it is possible toreduce the size of the guide member 15 and the length of the diffuserblade 152 while allowing the fan motor 10 to generate the same suctionforce. That is, by forming the spoiler portion 152 a, the guide member15 and the diffuser blade 152 may be formed to be smaller.

In this embodiment, the thickness of the diffuser blade 152 graduallyincreases from the inner end portion to the outer end portion, withoutbeing limited thereto.

It is also possible to partially form the wedge shape in some section ofthe diffuser blade 152 by having the inner end portion of the diffuserblade formed to be thicker than the outer end

That is, some section of the diffuser blade 152 is formed to have thewedge shape, while the remaining section is formed to have a constantthickness.

In this embodiment, the thickness of the diffuser blade 152 graduallyincreases from the inner end portion to the outer end portion, makingthe air discharged more smoothly. However, the thickness of the diffuserblade 152 is not limited thereto. As shown in FIG. 6, even if thediffuser blade 152-1 is formed to have a constant thickness as thewhole, a spoiler portion 152 a-1 may be formed on an outer end portionof the diffuser blade 152-1 to reduce the flow separation.

As described above, a fan motor and a vacuum cleaner according to thepresent disclosure reduce flow separation by a spoiler portion providedat an outer end portion of diffuser blades so that flow velocity of thedischarged air guided by the diffuser blades increases, and accordingly,suction force of the fan motor increases.

The fan motor and the vacuum cleaner according to the present disclosuremay maintain the suction force of the fan motor at a predetermined levelor higher using the spoiler portion while reducing the size of a guidemember and the length of the diffuser blades.

The present disclosure is not limited to the embodiments describedabove, and it should be clear to those skilled in the art that variouschanges and modifications thereto are possible without departing fromthe spirit and scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the changesand modifications fall within the scope of the appended claims of thepresent disclosure.

1. A fan motor comprises: a blowing fan, and a plurality of diffuserblades provided on a radially outer side of the blowing fan and spacedapart from each other in a circumferential direction, wherein each ofthe plurality of diffuser blades includes a spoiler portion provided atan outer end of the diffuser blade and extending obliquely to an outwarddirection with respect to an extending direction of the diffuser blades.2. The fan motor according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of diffuserblades each extend obliquely with respect to the circumferentialdirection.
 3. The fan motor according to claim 1, wherein the spoilerportion is formed such that outer surface of the spoiler portion is atan angle between about 5 and about 20 degrees with respect to theextending direction of the diffuser blade.
 4. The fan motor according toclaim 1, wherein the spoiler portion has a length, which is a third ofthe length of the diffuser blade.
 5. The fan motor according to claim 1,wherein the diffuser blade has a thickness such that an inner endportion of the diffuser blade thicker than an outer end portion of thediffuser blade.
 6. The fan motor according to claim 5, wherein thediffuser blade has a gradually increasing thickness from the inner endportion to the outer end portion.
 7. The fan motor according to claim 1,further comprises: a motor housing configured to accommodate the motor;a fan housing configured to accommodate the blowing fan and coupled tothe motor housing, and a guide member configured to guide air dischargedfrom the blowing fan, wherein the guide member includes a partition wallhaving a circular plate shape, and the plurality of diffuser blades areprovided at an outermost edge of one side of the partition wall.
 8. Avacuum cleaner comprising the fan motor according to claim
 1. 9. Avacuum cleaner comprising the fan motor according to claim
 2. 10. Avacuum cleaner comprising the fan motor according to claim
 3. 11. Avacuum cleaner comprising the fan motor according to claim
 4. 12. Avacuum cleaner comprising the fan motor according to claim
 5. 13. Avacuum cleaner comprising the fan motor according to claim
 6. 14. Avacuum cleaner comprising the fan motor according to claim 7.